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Falls plant to close, putting 200 out of work

Posted: 6:58 AM, Dec 02, 2015

Updated:2015-12-02 11:58:58Z

By:
WKBW Staff, Cierra Johnson

The new owner of the former DuPont plant in Niagara Falls is going to shut it down next year.

After completing a strategic review of its business, Chemours Chemical decided to stop production at the Buffalo Avenue plant by the end of December 2016. That move will put around 200 people out of work.

The company says closing the plant will save $20 million annually.

“It’s going to be tough,” former DuPont employee Andrew Atkinson told 7 Eyewitness News. “In Niagara Falls there aren’t that many places hiring and it’s hard to make the wage that they were making here elsewhere.”

For nearly four years, 27-year-old Andrew Atkinson clocked in and out of the plant that produces titanium and lithium products. He says the work was hard but the people made it a nice place to work - and the money wasn’t bad either.

“You know you work a lot of over time in the summer you could probably make it up into the $100,000 range and that’s unheard of in Niagara Falls.”

Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster said that he is focused on keeping the workers at the Buffalo Avenue plant employed.

In a statement Dyster told 7 Eyewitness News that his initial concern is for ensuring the future employment of the employees and contractors at that facility.

He went on to say already on Tuesday, after the news broke, he has been in contact with the company, Empire State Development, and other stakeholders in an effort to secure future operations at that site.

But for the former Chemours employee who still has an identical twin and friends working at the plant, the news hits hard.

“A lot of the workers here don’t have degrees so where do you go now, another plant?”